6 months for pet cruelty

Pit bulls victims of unthinkable abuse

Robert Gavi, Times Union

By Robert Gavin

Updated 6:58 am, Wednesday, July 3, 2013

Anthony Walker (Albany County Sheriff's Department)

Anthony Walker (Albany County Sheriff's Department)

Two of the three pit bull puppies found mutilated and abandoned in Albany were seen at the Mohawk Hudson Animal Shelter, Tuesday Sept. 11, 2012, in Menands, N.Y. The man charged in the case was also charged with leaving four dogs in a U-Haul truck during frigid weather Jan. 26. 2013. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union archive)

Two of the three pit bull puppies found mutilated and abandoned in...

A 3-week-old pit bull puppy with its left rear paw cut off, one of three puppies all mutilated in the same area rescued in Albany and shown at the Mohawk Hudson Animal Shelter in Menands Tuesday Sept. 11, 2012. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union archive)

A 3-week-old pit bull puppy with its left rear paw cut off, one of...

A 3-week-old pit bull puppy, one of three, found mutilated and abandoned in Albany, is shown at the Mohawk Hudson Animal Shelter in Menands Tuesday Sept. 11, 2012. (John Carl D'Annibale / Times Union archive)

A 3-week-old pit bull puppy, one of three, found mutilated and...

After receiving his new prosthetic paw to Hudson, right with his sister Pearl, right stretches his legs at the Hudson Mohawk River Humane Society headquarters in Menands, N.Y. Nov 12, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

After receiving his new prosthetic paw to Hudson, right with his...

After receiving his new prosthetic paw to Hudson stretches his legs at the Hudson Mohawk River Humane Society headquarters in Menands, N.Y. Nov 12, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

After receiving his new prosthetic paw to Hudson stretches his legs...

After receiving his new prosthetic paw to Hudson stretches his legs at the Hudson Mohawk River Humane Society headquarters in Menands, N.Y. Nov 12, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

After receiving his new prosthetic paw to Hudson stretches his legs...

After receiving his new prosthetic paw to Hudson relaxes for a short time at the Hudson Mohawk River Humane Society headquarters in Menands, N.Y. Nov 12, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

After receiving his new prosthetic paw to Hudson relaxes for a...

Dr. Tom Bowerstock, right, fits Hudson for a prosthetic paw. Hudson was one of three puppies found Sept. 10 abandoned and emaciated near an Albany rail track. (Photo courtesy of Mohawk Hudson Humane Society)

Dr. Tom Bowersox applies the new prosthetic paw to Hudson with the help of Animal Welfare Manager Nancy Haynes at the Hudson Mohawk River Humane Society headquarters in Menands, N.Y. Nov 12, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Dr. Tom Bowersox applies the new prosthetic paw to Hudson with the...

Dr. Tom Bowersox applies the new prosthetic paw to Hudson with the help of Animal Welfare Manager Nancy Haynes at the Hudson Mohawk River Humane Society headquarters in Menands, N.Y. Nov 12, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Dr. Tom Bowersox applies the new prosthetic paw to Hudson with the...

Dr. Tom Bowersox applies the new prosthetic paw to Hudson with the help of Animal Welfare Manager Nancy Haynes at the Hudson Mohawk River Humane Society headquarters in Menands, N.Y. Nov 12, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Dr. Tom Bowersox applies the new prosthetic paw to Hudson with the...

Dr. Tom Bowersox applies the new prosthetic paw to Hudson with the help of Animal Welfare Manager Nancy Haynes at the Hudson Mohawk River Humane Society headquarters in Menands, N.Y. Nov 12, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Dr. Tom Bowersox applies the new prosthetic paw to Hudson with the...

Pearl, left and her brother Hudson relax after Hudson received his new prosthetic paw at the Hudson Mohawk River Humane Society headquarters in Menands, N.Y. Nov 12, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

Pearl, left and her brother Hudson relax after Hudson received his...

After receiving his new prosthetic paw to Hudson relaxes for a short time at the Hudson Mohawk River Humane Society headquarters in Menands, N.Y. Nov 12, 2012. (Skip Dickstein/Times Union)

After receiving his new prosthetic paw to Hudson relaxes for a...

Dr. Tom Bowerstock, right, fits Hudson for a prosthetic paw. Hudson was one of three puppies found Sept. 10 abandoned and emaciated near an Albany rail track. (Photo courtesy of Mohawk Hudson Humane Society)

Dr. Tom Bowerstock, right, fits Hudson for a prosthetic paw. Hudson was one of three puppies found Sept. 10 abandoned and emaciated near an Albany rail track. (Photo courtesy of Mohawk Hudson Humane Society)

Dr. Tom Bowerstock, left, fits Hudson for a prosthetic paw. Hudson was one of three puppies found Sept. 10 abandoned and emaciated near an Albany rail track. (Photo courtesy of Mohawk Hudson Humane Society)

Some were left shivering and emaciated in the back of a freezing trailer. Others were left for dead on railroad tracks. And one lost her life.

But Tuesday, the pit bulls who fell victim to the unthinkable cruelty of Anthony Walker finally had their figurative day in court — their abuser is headed to jail for six months.

Walker, 30, of Albany, pleaded guilty before Albany County Judge Peter Lynch to one count of aggravated animal cruelty, a felony better known as Buster's Law, the state crackdown enacted in 1999 to punish the worst cases of animal abuse. It was the most serious charge he faced.

Walker will also receive five years' probation at his sentencing on Aug. 13. He cannot own or live with an animal, under the plea bargain, for five years.

Walker's guilty plea came as he was scheduled for a pretrial hearing in his case. It covers the charges he faced for abandoning four pit bulls discovered Jan. 26 in the back of a U-Haul trailer parked outside the Super 8 Motel at 1579 Central Ave. in Colonie. It also covers his Jan. 14 arrest for abandoning three baby pit bulls found on Sept. 8 by workers on the railroad tracks at North Pearl Street, just north of the Ida J. Yarbrough Homes.

All three of the "railroad puppies," as they became known around the region, were dehydrated, malnourished, hypoglycemic and suffering from infection when they arrived at the Mohawk Hudson Humane Society shelter in Menands.

The surviving puppies included Hudson, a male who needed a prosthetic paw after a hole in his paw required it be amputated, and Pearl, a female missing two toes. Their sister, Carina, died of her injuries within 48 hours of being found.

Hudson and Pearl, now about 10 months old, have since been adopted, as have the four older dogs, two male, two female, abandoned in the U-Haul. One of those dogs has since given birth to four puppies of her own who were also adopted, said Brad Shear, the executive director of the shelter.

He said one of the dogs in the trailer, named Archer, was "skin and bone" when discovered, but is doing well now.

Shear said the dogs are doing very well, but abuse has led to lingering problems. Hudson will need his prosthetic paw soon replaced, and Pearl could need surgery because of her missing toes.

"What was done to the dogs was so severe," Shear said. "In the case of the railroad puppies, someone obviously intentionally doing some serious physical harm to them, and then you have him doing even more harm to dogs later; it's cases like that where someone does something especially depraved that the felony law was written for."

Albany County District Attorney David Soares said he believes there are many more animal cruelty cases that the public should report — if not to police — then to Shear's shelter.

The maximum penalty under Buster's Law is two years behind bars. On a Facebook page that tracks the progress of Hudson and Pearl, news of Walker's punishment was blasted by several commenters who felt the sentence was too light.

Soares said one of the primary goals in prosecuting animal cruelty cases is to make sure the abuser is monitored and cannot get access to an animal. He said Walker's five years of probation will keep him under intense supervision aimed at keeping him from getting another pet.

"We would love to see, of course, the maximum penalty in every case but I think the DA's office got the best that they felt they could get," said Shear, who credited prosecutors and police in Albany and Colonie for their work on the case. "We're happy that he's doing jail time and that for the next five years he can't have pets."